Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

While the OFFICE of President remains in highest regard at NewEnergyNews, this administration's position on the climate crisis makes it impossible to regard THIS president with respect. Below is the NewEnergyNews theme song until 2020.

The ocean is the biggest solar system in the world, transforming surface heat into deeper cold. It translates the planetary force of the moon into tides. And it is the biggest wind energy system in the world, transforming winds into waves. The mechanical force of waves can be captured and transformed into electricity, as can the mechanical force of the tides and the temperature differential between the ocean surface and the ocean’s depths.

Nevertheless, there are fewer than 12 megawatts of installed ocean energy capacity in the world.

Worldwide research and development of ocean energies is expected to reach $2 billion over the next 3 years, driving the installation of prototypes and pilot projects around the world.

Tidal energies are present at coastlines around the world and considered highly accessible for energy capture. The turbines to harvest tidal energy are frequently described as very like wind turbines placed in any strong tidal flow. The only obstacle to success so far has been turbine sturdiness.

Because the flow of water is calculated to be 800 times denser than the flow of wind, ocean and tidal energy turbines have to be heavier and more expensive but can capture more energy for the effort and cost.

Wave energy is even more widespread than tidal energy and represents even greater potential. On the energy-rich Pacific Northwest coast of the U.S., waves could generate 40–70 kilowatts (kW) of electricity per meter (3.3 feet) of coastline. Worldwide, analysts believe there is enough wave energy to generate 2 terawatts (2 trillion watts) of electricity.

The biggest obstacle, at present, to wave energy development is its many, many competitive technologies. Without a single agreed-on technology (like wind energy’s 3-blade turbine) or technologies (like the solar industry’s few competing versions of solar panels and its handful of competing solar power plant designs), there can be no directed incentives, no production technologies at utility scale, no volume to bring costs down.

Right now, the best UK wave energy technology in place is producing power at something like 6.7 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Settling on a set of technologies, moving them toward efficient performance and building them in commercial quantities to develop economies of scale would, it is estimated, bring the cost of wave energy-generated electricity down near the cost of wind power-generated electricity, ~4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Big coal plants, already built and operating on the expense basis of the last generation of energy sources, produce electricity at ~2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour (according to some estimates). New coal plants cannot be built at costs allowing for electricity to be generated that cheaply and few new coal plants are, in fact, being licensed in industrial nations because governments are holding off in the empty hope of a breakthrough in “clean” coal technology.

New natural gas plants, the biggest source of new power generation in the U.S. and most developed countries, can get costs down to ~3 cents per kilowatt hour but it is usually closer to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour and higher.

And the cost of electricity from both coal and natural gas will rise as the price on greenhouse gas emissions rises, as it inevitably will when society begins charging fossil fuels for the harm they do. That is why there is so much interest in the New Energies in general and in the hydrokinetic energies in particular.

The U.S., Brazil, Scotland, Germany, Portugal, Canada and France are all aggressively developing wave energy projects. The expectation is of 30+% growth over the next 5 years.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently awarded $18+ million in grants for Advanced Water Power Projects in 3 categories, (1) Technology Development, (2) Market Acceleration and (3) National Marine Energy Centers. This significant public investment should contribute to the technologies' maturation.

COMMENTARYThe DOE grants went to the outstanding names in ocean energy. It is likely the names on the DOE grant list will be the companies that will lead in the field.

For Technology Development, awards of up to $600,000 over up to 2 years, went to: (1) Electric Power Research Institute, Inc, (EPRI) for fish-friendly hydropower turbine development & deployment. (2) Verdant Power Inc., for improved structure and fabrication of large, high-power kinetic hydropower systems rotors.(3) Public Utility District #1 of Snohomish County (SnoPUD), for a Puget Sound tidal energy in-water testing and development project. (4) Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) for in-water testing and development of the WaveConnect Wave Energy Project.(5) Concepts ETI, Inc, for the development and demonstration of an Ocean Wave Converter (OWC) power system. (6) Lockheed Martin Corporation for an advanced composite Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) cold water pipe validation test project.

For Market Acceleration, awards of up to $500,000 went to:(1) EPRI, for wave energy resource assessment and GIS database development for the U.S. (2) Georgia Tech Research Corporation, for the assessment of energy production potential from tidal streams in the U.S. (3) Re Vision Consulting, LLC, for the study of best siting practices for marine and hydrokinetic technologies with respect to environmental and navigational impacts. (4) Pacific Energy Ventures, LLC, for the writing of siting protocols for marine and hydrokinetic energy projects. (5) PCCI, Inc., for the identification of potential navigational impacts and mitigation measures of marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy technologies.(6) Science Applications International Corporation, for international standards development for marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy.

For National Marine Energy Centers, awards of up to $1.25 million over up to 5 years, went to:(1) Oregon State University, and University of Washington - Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, to further develop the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center with a full range of capabilities to support wave and tidal energy development in the U.S. (2) University of Hawaii National Renewable Marine Energy Center to further facilitate the development and implementation of commercial wave energy systems and to assist the private sector in moving ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) systems beyond proof-of-concept to pre-commercial long-term testing.

There are companies that come up repeatedly in every summary of ocean energy technology. They are the companies to watch:

(1) Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). Its troubled Finavera Renewables AquaBouy 2.0 wave energy installation in Northern California could eventually be the first working U.S. project, perhaps in 2010.(2) Siemens AG. Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation owns Wavegen, Scotland's first wave power company. Wavegen is an oscillating water column (OWC) which, as a stable device near the shoreline, has to take less punishment from the harsh ocean environment. A small device is already connected to Scotland’s grid and they are planning another for Northern Spain.(3) Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. OPT's PowerBuoy is used to supply wave energy-generated electricity. Iberdrola is paying for a PowerBuoy station off Santona, Spain, is talking with French oil major Total about a project off the French coast and is developing plans for England, Scotland, Hawaii, and Oregon.(4) Pelamis Wave Power, formerly known as Ocean Power Delivery. A groundbreaking Scottish technology, Pelamis has won funding from General Electric Energy and Norsk Hydro, among others, and is being watched by Chevron. Pelamis Wave Power may put Scotland at the forefront of Europe's New Energy sector.

(5) Endesa SA ADS. Endesa is the Spanish electric utility that partnered with Pelamis, the world’s first full scale commercial wave power installation off Aguçadoura, Portugal. Though the first phase failed in the harsh ocean conditions and was towed ashore last fall, a second phase could be as big as 20+ megawatts and change the wave energy game. (6) RWE AG ADR. A German management holding company, RWE has 6 power and energy divisions and is developing wave power stations in Siadar Bay on the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland. (7) Oceanlinx. Its oscillating wave column design has been funded by RWE and it is planning projects in Australia, the U.S., South Africa, Mexico, and Britain.(7) Alstom. In a sign of things to come, the multinational power and utility giant has begun developing wave and tidal projects.

The Future of Ocean Energy:- Tidal technologies are on the verge of maturity.- River current energy pilot projects are proceeding successfully but ocean current pilot projects have been defeated by the elements.- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) projects are purely experimental.- The potential of wave energy is impressive.- There are potential wave energy development sites worldwide.- Site selection will be one key for wave energy: (1) Enviromental impacts, thought to be benign, remain unsettled and will slow development. (2) The fishery industries must be accommodated. (3) Ocean recreation must be accommodated. (4) Shipping and Naval concerns must be addressed.- Cost competitiveness is in doubt and will remain in doubt until the technology matures. - To mature, ocean energy technology must prove sturdy enough to endure the intensely harsh ocean environment.- Environmental hardening must be done cost competitively and the technology maturation that is necessary for cost competitiveness has not been achieved.- Once built, operation and maintenance costs of adequately sturdy devices will be low and fuel will be – FREE.

QUOTES- Gary Shanahan, Deputy Director, Severn Tidal Power: “There are a number of technologies that can be used to generate power from the tidal range – the difference between high and low tides – of an estuary, bay or river. When the water level outside the impoundment changes relative to the water level inside, the head created enables the production of power from turbines…The most well understood technology is a tidal barrage in which a barrage spans the estuary, bay or river, which can then be considered in a similar way to a hydroelectric dam. Other technologies that are being considered for exploitation of energy from a tidal range are tidal lagoons, tidal fences and tidal reefs…”

- Stated vision of the IEA-OES: “To realise, by 2020, the use of cost-competitive, environmentally sound ocean energy on a sustainable basis to provide a significant contribution to meeting future energy demands.”- Stated mission of the IEA-OES: “To facilitate and co-ordinate ocean energy research, development and demonstration through international co-operation and information exchange, leading to the deployment and commercialisation of sustainable, efficient, reliable, cost-competitive and environmentally sound ocean energy technologies.- From the Introduction to Ocean Energy: Global Technology Development Status: “The energy in the ocean waves is a form of concentrated solar energy that is transferred through complex wind-wave interactions. The effects of earth’s temperature variation due to solar heating, combined with a multitude of atmospheric phenomena, generate wind currents in global scale. Ocean wave generation, propagation and direction are directly related to these wind currents. On the other hand, ocean tides are cyclic variations in seawater elevation and flow velocity as a direct result of the earth’s motion with respect to the moon and the sun and the interaction of their gravitational forces. A number of phenomena relating to earth rotational tilt, rate of spinning, and interaction among gravitational and rotational forces cause the tide conditions to vary significantly over time. Tide conditions are more apparent in coastal areas where constrained channels augment the water flow and increase the energy density. The forms of ocean renewable sources can be broadly categorized into: (a) Tides (b) Wave (c) Marine Current (d) Temperature Gradient, and (e) Salinity Gradient…”

Review of OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The American Decades by Mark S. Friedman

OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The American Decades, the second volume of Herman K. Trabish’s retelling of oil’s history in fiction, picks up where the first book in the series, OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The Story of Our Addiction, left off. The new book is an engrossing, informative and entertaining tale of the Roaring 20s, World War II and the Cold War. You don’t have to know anything about the first historical fiction’s adventures set between the Civil War, when oil became a major commodity, and World War I, when it became a vital commodity, to enjoy this new chronicle of the U.S. emergence as a world superpower and a world oil power.

As the new book opens, Lefash, a minor character in the first book, witnesses the role Big Oil played in designing the post-Great War world at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Unjustly implicated in a murder perpetrated by Big Oil agents, LeFash takes the name Livingstone and flees to the U.S. to clear himself. Livingstone’s quest leads him through Babe Ruth’s New York City and Al Capone’s Chicago into oil boom Oklahoma. Stymied by oil and circumstance, Livingstone marries, has a son and eventually, surprisingly, resolves his grievances with the murderer and with oil.

In the new novel’s second episode the oil-and-auto-industry dynasty from the first book re-emerges in the charismatic person of Victoria Wade Bridger, “the woman everybody loved.” Victoria meets Saudi dynasty founder Ibn Saud, spies for the State Department in the Vichy embassy in Washington, D.C., and – for profound and moving personal reasons – accepts a mission into the heart of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Underlying all Victoria’s travels is the struggle between the allies and axis for control of the crucial oil resources that drove World War II.

As the Cold War begins, the novel’s third episode recounts the historic 1951 moment when Britain’s MI-6 handed off its operations in Iran to the CIA, marking the end to Britain’s dark manipulations and the beginning of the same work by the CIA. But in Trabish’s telling, the covert overthrow of Mossadeq in favor of the ill-fated Shah becomes a compelling romance and a melodramatic homage to the iconic “Casablanca” of Bogart and Bergman.

Monty Livingstone, veteran of an oil field youth, European WWII combat and a star-crossed post-war Berlin affair with a Russian female soldier, comes to 1951 Iran working for a U.S. oil company. He re-encounters his lost Russian love, now a Soviet agent helping prop up Mossadeq and extend Mother Russia’s Iranian oil ambitions. The reunited lovers are caught in a web of political, religious and Cold War forces until oil and power merge to restore the Shah to his future fate. The romance ends satisfyingly, America and the Soviet Union are the only forces left on the world stage and ambiguity is resolved with the answer so many of Trabish’s characters ultimately turn to: Oil.

Commenting on a recent National Petroleum Council report calling for government subsidies of the fossil fuels industries, a distinguished scholar said, “It appears that the whole report buys these dubious arguments that the consumer of energy is somehow stupid about energy…” Trabish’s great and important accomplishment is that you cannot read his emotionally engaging and informative tall tales and remain that stupid energy consumer. With our world rushing headlong toward Peak Oil and epic climate change, the OIL IN THEIR BLOOD series is a timely service as well as a consummate literary performance.

Review of OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The Story of Our Addiction by Mark S. Friedman

"...ours is a culture of energy illiterates." (Paul Roberts, THE END OF OIL)

OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, a superb new historical fiction by Herman K. Trabish, addresses our energy illiteracy by putting the development of our addiction into a story about real people, giving readers a chance to think about how our addiction happened. Trabish's style is fine, straightforward storytelling and he tells his stories through his characters.

The book is the answer an oil family's matriarch gives to an interviewer who asks her to pass judgment on the industry. Like history itself, it is easier to tell stories about the oil industry than to judge it. She and Trabish let readers come to their own conclusions.

She begins by telling the story of her parents in post-Civil War western Pennsylvania, when oil became big business. This part of the story is like a John Ford western and its characters are classic American melodramatic heroes, heroines and villains.

In Part II, the matriarch tells the tragic story of the second generation and reveals how she came to be part of the tales. We see oil become an international commodity, traded on Wall Street and sought from London to Baku to Mesopotamia to Borneo. A baseball subplot compares the growth of the oil business to the growth of baseball, a fascinating reflection of our current president's personal career.

There is an unforgettable image near the center of the story: International oil entrepreneurs talk on a Baku street. This is Trabish at his best, portraying good men doing bad and bad men doing good, all laying plans for wealth and power in the muddy, oily alley of a tiny ancient town in the middle of everywhere. Because Part I was about triumphant American heroes, the tragedy here is entirely unexpected, despite Trabish's repeated allusions to other stories (Casey At The Bat, Hamlet) that do not end well.

In the final section, World War I looms. Baseball takes a back seat to early auto racing and oil-fueled modernity explodes. Love struggles with lust. A cavalry troop collides with an army truck. Here, Trabish has more than tragedy in mind. His lonely, confused young protagonist moves through the horrible destruction of the Romanian oilfields only to suffer worse and worse horrors, until--unexpectedly--he finds something, something a reviewer cannot reveal. Finally, the question of oil must be settled, so the oil industry comes back into the story in a way that is beyond good and bad, beyond melodrama and tragedy.

Along the way, Trabish gives readers a greater awareness of oil and how we became addicted to it. Awareness, Paul Roberts said in THE END OF OIL, "...may be the first tentative step toward building a more sustainable energy economy. Or it may simply mean that when our energy system does begin to fail, and we begin to lose everything that energy once supplied, we won't be so surprised."

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